What gives you your sense of self?

Answer 1

Knowing who I am and liking it. Beyond all the friends and family I have, I know who I am and what I am and why I am here and wouldn't change it for the world.

Answer 2

Having a strong sense of identity is a good thing. Your ego is your sense of yourself, it is not an evil thing as some will say. Your sense of self gives you YOU, as unique from those around you. Without your ego, you would collapse into those around you, take on their feelings and opinions, become a "go alonger".

Having a weak sense of self means your boundaries are fuzzy, or non-existant.

Having fuzzy boundaries means you are vulnerable to those who wish to use you, enslave you or hurt you.

Having a weak sense of self is not a sin ... or a failure.

We have been told by our various religions, for eons and eons, that the two things that make individuals unique -- our ego and our feelings (Soul) -- must be given up, surrendered, collapsed into God's, or ...


He will not love us
He will abandon us and it will be our fault
We aren't following the true path, and therefore must be following Lucifer or Satan
We will never get into "Heaven"
We will never be able to "ascend"



We have been told that the ego is synonymous with selfishness.
We have been told that anything that begins with SELF is counter to love. That self-LESS-ness is the only path to enlightenment. Ego is an attachment to this world, to the desires of the flesh, desire for individuation, which is counter to blending and enfolding into the All That Is.Rubbish.

Anything that puts you in touch with more of the truth opens the Heart. This is a literal and experiential description of truth. When your experience is bringing you more truth, there is a sense of opening, softening, relaxation, expansion, fulfillment, and satisfaction in the Heart. This can be most directly sensed in the center of the chest, but the Heart of all Being is infinite and therefore actually bigger than your entire body. So this opening, softening, and expansion is actually happening everywhere; we just sense it most clearly and directly in the center of the chest.

When you encounter truth, the sense of your self opens, expands, softens, fills in, and lets go. The me, the sense of your self, is no longer felt to be so limited or small. It becomes more complete and unbounded. The boundaries soften and dissolve, and any sense of inadequacy, limitation, or deficiency is lessened or eliminated.

As a side effect of being in touch with more of the truth, your mind gets quieter because you simply have less to think about. Even knowing a simple truth like where your car keys are gives you less to think about. And when you touch upon a very large truth, your mind becomes even quieter, like when you see the ocean for the first time: The truth or reality you’re viewing is so immense that at least for a moment your mind is stopped and becomes very quiet.

In contrast, when your experience is moving into a diminished or smaller experience of the truth and of reality, the Heart contracts. The sense of your self gets tight, hard, contracted, and feels incomplete, bounded and limited. It can feel like you are small, inadequate, or unworthy. The smallness of the truth is reflected in the smallness of the sense of your self. The result of being less in touch with the truth is that your mind gets busier as it tries to figure out what is true.

Fortunately, your Being is never diminished or contracted, only the sense of your self. Just as blocking your view of the whole room by partially covering your eyes makes your sense of the room smaller without actually making the room smaller, an idea or belief that’s not very true is reflected in a small sense of your self without actually limiting or contracting your Being.

This opening and closing of the Heart in response to the degree of truth you’re experiencing is not something you need to practice or perfect. Your Heart has been accurately and perfectly showing you how true your experience is all along. If you start to notice your Heart’s openings and closings, you’ll discover that you already have everything you need to determine what is true. The Heart is the true inner teacher, the source of inner guidance we all have as our birthright. You don’t need a spiritual teacher or spiritual books to show you what’s true, just your own Heart. There are many subtleties to the movement and workings of your own Heart which can make the complexities of life challenging to sort out.

Yet, right now, if you start listening, feeling, and sensing the movement of your Heart—your most intimate sense of your self—you already have the key to knowing everything there is to know and realizing everything that can’t be known, everything that’s beyond the mind.

Answer 3

There are a thousand small life enhancing things, but the
one that touches me the deepest...the one that makes me
know that in fact I have depth and soul...is music....so many
different kinds. I was talking the other day about John
Williams and his remarkable score of Shindler's List .... and a hundred others. When
I hear that music, I can feel the beauty of my heart and know
exactly who I am...it guides me into other places where
I feel one hundred percent free, hopeful and affirmed as a
caring, worthwhile human being. Comforting..

Answer 4

My sense of self is the result of numerous components:
The tasks I have attempted.
The "gifts" I've given, received, and have.
The things I've learned about myself and others.
My knowledge.
My capacity to care.
My uniqueness.

Many other things---too numerous to count!

Answer 5

Cognition. Your "self" is an emotional yet rational animal. The rational part has cognitions of the emotions. "I feel myself inside, therefore I exist."

Answer 6

Pure consciousness as a continuum underlying all experiences.

Answer 7

Helping other people who need it more than most.

Answer 8

Like the first answerer said, knowing who I am and liking it. 'Nuff said.

Answer 9

My W2 form.

Answer 10

being happy...